BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins volleyball team needed just six sets to earn a pair of victories in Goldfarb Gymnasium Saturday afternoon as the Blue Jays swept Muhlenberg and Eastern to run their winning streak to five matches.  The Blue Jays improve to 14-7 overall and 8-0 in the Centennial Conference with today's wins.
 
The Muhlenberg Match
The Blue Jays swept past the Mules by scores of 25-19, 25-5 and 25-22 to improve to 8-0 in the Centennial Conference.  Johns Hopkins is the last remaining unbeaten team in the Centennial after F&M lost earlier today against Swarthmore.
 
Hopkins took control of the first set with a 10-2 run that turned a 7-7 tie into 17-9 lead.  Simone Adam collected two of Hopkins' four kills during the spree, which also included a kill and service ace from Danielle Norman.  The Mules pulled within five on three occasions down the stretch before Norman closed the set with a kill.
 
The second set was all Blue Jays as they jumped out to a 15-1 lead en route to posting their most lopsided set victory of the season.  Hopkins collected 11 kills against just one error on 20 attacks for a .500 hitting percentage in the set to grab the 2-0 lead.
 
After falling into an early hole, the Mules pushed the Blue Jays until the end in set three.  Down 17-9 after Chidinma Onukwugha sandwiched kills around a Norman ace for Johns Hopkins, the Mules got within two at 20-18.  The final four of those points came off the serve of Alyssa Faville, who wrapped a pair of aces around a pair of Blue Jay attacking errors to make it a two-point game. It was 21-20 after a Mariah service error and 23-22 after a Blue Jay attack error, but back-to-back kills from Onukwugha and Adam sealed the win for the Blue Jays.
 
Norman and Adam combined for 22 kills, while four players had 10 or more digs for the Blue Jays with Batista leading the way with 14.  Helena Swaak added 26 assists and 10 digs in the victory.
 
The Eastern Match
The Blue Jays grabbed a 25-15 win in a first set that featured nine ties and three lead changes.  Deadlocked at 14, the Blue Jays closed the set on a 10-1 run to grab the 1-0 lead.  Back-to-back service aces from Evelyn Batista ignited the set-ending spree for the Blue Jays, who got two more aces from Roxy Karrer down the stretch to help lock up the set.
 
Eastern grabbed an early lead in the second set and led by six at 10-4 and 12-6 before the Blue Jays rallied to pull even at 16-all.  The Blue Jays used a quick 4-1 spurt – fueled by a pair of Norman kills – to go up 21-17 before the Eagles pulled within two on four occasions; holding serve but facing set point, the Eagles fell on an Alice Yu kill to go down 2-0.
 
A back-and-forth third set saw the teams evenly split the first 28 points before the Blue Jays used an 8-0 run to turn the 14-all tie into a 22-14 lead.  Again, it was Batista at the service line and she served up one ace during the run, but five Eastern attack errors also hurt the Eagles.  Eastern would get as close as four down the stretch but Adam closed things out with ninth kill of the match.
 
Simrin Carlsen made her return to the lineup for the Blue Jays and had team-highs of 13 kills and 11 digs, while Adam (9 kills), Onukwugha (7) and Yu (7) contributed to a balanced offensive attack.  Swaak dished out 36 assists in the three-set victory.
 
What's Next
Johns Hopkins will return to the court on Wednesday, October 19 when the Blue Jays travel to Franklin & Marshall for a key Centennial Conference match against the Diplomats (7 pm).